Disability support services 2000, national data on services provided under the Commonwealth/State Disability Agreement

The data in this report come from the CSDA Minimum Data Set (MDS) collection conducted in May - June 2000, and cover State, Territory and Commonwealth CSDA-funded services. This is the sixth data collection, the fourth to cover all jurisdictions and services. This report includes and significantly expands the information published in Disability Support Services: First National Results, 2000, released by the Institute in December 2000.

This report provides estimates relating to a single day ('snapshot day') and deals with:

• consumers and their characteristics;
• services received; and
• numbers of service outlets for CSDA-funded services.

Data for each previous annual collection have been published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). See Appendix 1 for details.

On the snapshot day in May - June 2000 an estimated 62,341 consumers received one or more CSDA-funded services. Data about consumer characteristics, including disability groups, support needs, method of communication, living arrangements and main income source are detailed in this publication.

This section of the report provides an overview of data on consumer estimates, services received and service outlets. An outline of the remainder of the report is given at the end of the section.

Consumers and services received

There were an estimated 62,341 consumers on the snapshot day in 2000, who received a total of 74,929 CSDA-funded services.

Approximately one-third (21,104) of consumers were in Victoria. New South Wales had the second highest number of consumers (16,441), followed by Queensland (8,324) and Western Australia (8,004) (Table 1.1).

Most consumers (84%) received a service in only one of the five service type categories, the remaining 16% received between two and four services in different categories (Table 4.1). Consumers of accommodation and community access were the most likely to have used another category of service (Table 4.2).

On the snapshot day the distribution of consumers across service types was as follows:

• 34% of consumers used accommodation support services, including both institutional and community settings (Table 1.1);
• 28% used employment services, covering open labour market services and supported employment services;
• 27% used community support services, which include early childhood intervention, specific therapies, counselling and recreation programs;
• 24% used community access services, mainly covering educational, social and daily living activities; and
• 4% used respite services, facilities providing short-term breaks from caring activities to carers of people with a disability.

Table 1.1: Consumers of CSDA-funded services on a snapshot day, service type by State and Territory, Commonwealth, States and Territories, 2000

Service type	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	Total	%
Accommodation support	6,027	6,700	3,273	2,156	2,009	789	292	112	21,356	34.3
Community support	3,415	5,902	1,430	3,919	1,855	182	251	63	17,011	27.3
Community access	3,089	7,575	2,192	666	434	544	113	47	14,658	23.5
Respite	567	929	460	333	169	54	51	35	2,598	4.2
Employment	5,847	3,783	2,663	2,247	1,871	549	294	119	17,373	27.9
Total consumers	16,441	21,104	8,324	8,004	5,566	1,719	864	354	62,341	100.0

Notes

1. Consumer data are estimates after use of a statistical linkage key to account for individuals who have received more than one service on the snapshot day. Totals may not be the sum of the components since individuals may access more than one service type on the snapshot day. There were 35 consumers who accessed services in more than one State or Territory, mainly in 'border' areas.
2. Data for consumers of CSDA-funded services with service types Advocacy, Information/referral, Combined advocacy/information, Print disability/alt. formats of communication, Service evaluation/training, Peak bodies, Research/development and Other were not collected.
3. Data provided by the Commonwealth are preliminary and cover 99% of Commonwealth-funded services.

Sex and age

Overall, 58% (36,353) of consumers were male (Table 3.1); however, this proportion varied with service type from 54% for community access services to 64% for employment services (Table 3.2).

The 30 - 34 and 35 - 39 year age groups comprised the highest numbers of consumers (6,958 and 6,825 respectively) and the 65 - 69 year age group the lowest (757). Though the shape of the age distribution was similar for each sex, there were greater numbers of males for most age groups (Figure 1.1, see also Section 3.1 and Table A2.2).

From 1996 to 2000, there was a substantial and consistent increase in the average age of recipients of accommodation services. There was a smaller increase in age for employment, community access and some respite services, while for most community support services the age profile did not vary consistently over the period (Figures 3.1 to 3.8).

Disability groups

In 2000, 49% of consumers reported multiple disabilities (Table 3.5). The disability group most affecting the everyday life of each consumer was counted as the primary disability, with all significant disabilities affecting the lives of consumers also reported.

Figure 1.2 compares the numbers of consumers reporting each disability group on the 2000 snapshot day. The primary disability group with the greatest number was intellectual disability with 37,484 (60%). Those reporting a physical disability were the next most numerous, but much fewer (7,673 or 12%). Inclusion of all the other significant disabilities reported raises the number of consumers with intellectual disability to 42,446 and the number with physical disability to 17,826.

The next most common primary disability group was psychiatric disability. There were 5,381 consumers, or 9%, who reported this as their primary disability, whilst 9,323 (15%) reported it as either their primary or secondary disability.

Only 335 (3%) of the 12,450 speech disabilities reported were primary disabilities as were 19% of neurological disabilities and 23% of hearing disabilities.

Support needs

Information was collected concerning consumers' overall support needs in each of 10 areas of support. Around 82% of consumers reported a need for some level of support in activities of daily living (that is, in the areas of self-care, mobility, and/or communication; Table 3.19).

High proportions of consumers reported a need for continual support in most areas - between 18% for mobility and 34% for working.

Indigenous origin

Overall 1,629 consumers (2.6%) were identified as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin (Table 3.10). This compares with 2.4% in the general population under 65. A greater proportion of Indigenous consumers (65%) reported a need for frequent or continual support in activities of daily living compared with non-Indigenous consumers (56%; Table 3.15)

Income source

The Disability Support Pension was the main income source for most adult service consumers (84%; Table 3.16).

Living arrangements

Just under half of all consumers lived with family members and/or their spouse (49%), while 24% lived in special purpose (disability) community residential care (including group homes and hostels of less than 20 persons), and 10% lived in institutional accommodation (that is, aged care homes, hospitals or other institutional accommodation; Table 3.18). Trends from 1997 - 2000 show that the proportion of recipients living with family members and/or spouses has gradually increased, while the proportion of those living in other institutional accommodation has decreased (Table 3.20).

Consumers of multiple services

The level and pattern of multiple service usage varied among consumers depending upon such consumer characteristics as primary disability group, number of disabilities, method of communication, frequency of support needed for activities of daily living and main source of income. In particular, people with an intellectual primary disability were the most likely to have used more than one service type. Multiple service use tended to increase with the number of disability groups and the frequency of support needed. The most frequent combination used by people with more than one disability was accommodation and community access.

Use of services in 1999 and 2000

The collection of the statistical linkage key in 1999 and 2000 makes it possible to match the services used by consumers on the snapshot day in both years. Such analysis suggests that there was little direct movement of consumers from institutions and hostels to group houses over 1999 to 2000 (Table 4.11). Instead the growth in the number of consumers in group homes appears to have been mainly due to an influx of people who had not been using an accommodation service previously, or possibly may have been using an intermittent service not picked up on snapshot day. Conversely, most of the decline in the numbers using institutions and hostels appears to be due to people who had previously used these services no longer using a CSDA accommodation service at all.

Auspice of services used by consumers

Most consumers were provided with services by non-government organisations, and over half of the consumers were provided with services by charitable/religious organisations (33,883 or 54%; Figure 1.3 and Table A2.3). For specific service types there were some variations. For example, for accommodation support services, 62% were provided by non-government organisations including 26% provided by charitable/religious organisations. In contrast, almost all consumers were provided with employment services by charitable/religious organisations (98% or 17,086 consumers). Most (90%) of community access consumers received services from non-government auspiced organisations, with charitable/religious organisations providing 50% of all community access consumers with services.

A greater proportion of community support consumers were provided with services by government-auspiced organisations (7,362 or 43%).

Service outlets

A total of 7,378 CSDA service outlets responded to the 2000 CSDA MDS collection. Of these:

• 5,531 (75%) were provided under a non-government auspice, and 1,847 (25%) under a government auspice (Table 5.1 and Figure 1.4);

• 3,143 (43%) of service outlets were accommodation services - a greater number provided by non-government organisations (2,033) than by government (1,110);

• 1,758 (24%) were service outlets providing community support services - 73% of these (1,290) being non-government;

• 1,013 were service outlets providing community access services, with 927 (92%) being non-government;

• 844 were service outlets providing employment services, the vast majority (830 outlets or 98%) being non-government; and
• 545 were respite services, 401 (74%) were non-government auspiced.

There were 6,444 State- or Territory-funded CSDA service outlets and 934 Commonwealth-funded service outlets (Tables 5.2 and 5.3).

Government expenditure

Total expenditure by governments on CSDA services was $2.25 billion in 1999 - 00 or $2.04 billion when identified administration expenditure is excluded (Table 1.2). Accommodation support services accounted for over half of this expenditure ($1,157 million or 52%), with about one-tenth spent funding each of community support ($250 million), community access ($222 million) and employment services ($221 million). The remaining government expenditure on disability support services was for administration ($204 million), respite services ($119 million) and other support services ($74 million).

Table 1.2: CSDA expenditure on services by Australian governments, by service type, and administration expenditure, 1999 - 00

Service type	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT	C'wealth	Australia
$ million
Accommodation support	417.80	334.84	133.49	117.78	89.72	40.13	16.28	7.03	-	1,157.07
Community support	75.70	62.67	31.47	7.86	46.75	4.71	4.68	3.81	12.57	250.21
Community access	60.35	106.31	24.34	14.42	5.40	8.01	1.73	1.07	0.07	221.70
Respite	33.82	28.56	20.81	19.53	5.15	3.96	2.16	0.73	4.05	118.75
Employment	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	220.99	220.99
Other support	5.58	22.91	4.21	20.47	6.64	0.29	0.07	0.08	13.74	73.98
Subtotal	593.24	555.28	214.32	180.06	153.66	57.09	24.92	12.71	251.41	2,042.70
Administration	67.51	58.01	32.30	7.20	5.79	2.86	4.02	1.32	24.70	203.71
Total	660.75	613.29	246.62	187.25	159.46	59.95	28.94	14.03	276.11	2,246.41
Per cent
Accommodation support	63.2	54.6	54.1	62.9	56.3	66.9	56.3	50.1	-	51.5
Community support	11.5	10.2	12.8	4.2	29.3	7.9	16.2	27.1	4.6	11.1
Community access	9.1	17.3	9.9	7.7	3.4	13.4	6.0	7.6	0.0	9.9
Respite	5.1	4.7	8.4	10.4	3.2	6.6	7.5	5.2	1.5	5.3
Employment	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	80.0	9.8
Other support	0.8	3.7	1.7	10.9	4.2	0.5	0.2	0.6	5.0	3.3
Subtotal	89.8	90.5	86.9	96.2	96.4	95.2	86.1	90.6	91.1	90.9
Administration	10.2	9.5	13.1	3.8	3.6	4.8	13.9	9.4	8.9	9.1
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Note: Figures for community access services in Victoria do not include independent living training services.

Source: SCRCSSP 2001:Table 13A.8

Outline of the report

Section 2 describes the data collection and how it was conducted, and indicates some of the limitations important for purposes of interpretation.

Sections 3 to 5 give a detailed description of the results of the 2000 data collection, concentrating mainly on national patterns. Data are reported on estimates of consumers and on CSDA service outlets. Section 4 focuses specifically on multiple service users.

Section 6 contains a discussion of the data quality of the 2000 collection.